Games to watch:

Friday, Sept. 6 vs. Marina, 7 p.m.

Talk to any Ocean View football player about their season opener and you'll discover a chip on their shoulder. Being a Huntington Beach public school not associated with the Sunset League, the Seahawks feel they don't get the same attention or respect the bigger schools get. Ocean View athletic director Tim Walsh estimates that this game against Marina will be the first time the football team has played a Sunset League opponent since they left the league in 1994 and players, coaches and alumni are chomping at the bit.

Friday, Oct. 11 vs. Loara (Anaheim), 7 p.m.

The Seahawks face Golden West opponent Loara in the first game of the league season this year, but in 2012 played the Saxons with a playoff berth on the line in their final week. Loara won, 28-17, and went on to the CIF-Southern Section Southern Division playoffs and Ocean View went home empty-handed.

Players to watch

Daniel Valencia, senior, RB/LB

Valencia battled injuries early on last season (he only played in six games) and shared carries at running back, but is the Seahawks' leading returning rusher with 478 yards and three touchdowns on 84 carries. Normally a power runner, he had a 99-yard touchdown run against Orange last year.

"He's a stocky Hispanic kid who just runs hard," said Ocean View coach Luis Nunez. "He likes to run people over."

Hector Calderon, junior, WR/DB/K/P

A converted soccer player, Calderon is not only the Seahawks' best returning receiver, but will also be playing defense and handling the kicking and punting duties. The Ocean View coaching staff expects him to provide constant touchbacks.

David Alani, junior, LG/DT

Alani, who originally started the summer as a tight end, brings some good bloodlines to the offensive and defensive lines. His brother, who just graduated from Ocean View in June, is now playing at Division II Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania.

By the numbers

2011 – The last year Ocean View made the CIF-Southern Section playoffs. The Seahawks went 5-5 in the regular season, then defeated Santa Ana Valley in the first round of the Southern Division playoffs, before falling to Beckman in the second round.

20 – The projected number of underclassmen on Ocean View's 35-man varsity roster this season.

6 – Games in which Ocean View played where a team scored more than 40 points last season (a 45-0 loss to Estancia, a 49-0 win over Cerritos, a 43-20 win over Bolsa Grande, a 42-0 loss to Los Amigos, a 44-7 loss to Segerstrom and a 54-14 loss to Westminster).

10-15 – Ocean View's record in Golden West League play over the last five seasons.

Evan Perzanowski never intended on playing football at Ocean View High School.

He was just a big kid walking around during Ocean View’s WOW (an acronym for Week of Welcome), an orientation right before incoming freshman start at the school.

The football team has an informal policy for guys like Perzanowski.

“If you see any big-looking kids during WOW Week, get them out here,” said Ocean View head coach Luis Nunez, who was an offensive line coach when Perzanowski was a freshman.

So a friend, a football player named Joe Medrano, encouraged him to try out, even though Perzanowski considered himself a baseball and basketball player.

When did he give up on basketball?

“When I realized my vertical wasn’t very high,” said Perzanowski, who is 6-foot-6 and 290 pounds.

Although his focus initially was on other sports, he always wanted to play football, but due to his size and Pop Warner weight restrictions, he would have had to play with higher age groups, which didn’t fly with his mother.

Nunez saw Perzanowski on the practice field and was immediately struck by his size, but his performance wasn’t pretty in the beginning.

“His freshman year, he was very clumsy and very uncoordinated,” said Nunez, who was an offensive lineman at Arkansas State before returning to Southern California after college. “He wasn’t very good – just a big body. After his first season, he went to play basketball and baseball, so I really didn’t see him much. Then, he came out in the summer his sophomore year and I really got a hold of him.”

Under Nunez’s wing, Perzanowski flourished and was a first-team All-Golden West League selection as a sophomore in 2011 (he received the same honor last season). Now, several Ivy League schools have expressed interest (he’s also an honor roll student), including Cornell, which has been the most involved.

“It’s really crazy,” Perzanowski said. “It’s a dream come true. With all the great coaching I get, it was bound to happen with my size. I’ve always had people tell me I should get into football, but I never thought it would be like this.”

Nunez said Pac-12 schools Cal and Washington State have also sent feelers out to Perzanowski, but due to his inexperience, they want to see how his senior season goes before extending any offers.

“The Ivy League (schools) loved his film from last year, but he’s still a project,” Nunez said. “I always tell him he’s still a baby, but his potential – his growth – is unreal. For the Pac-12 guys, it’s still ‘wait and see.’”

How Perzanowski’s senior season progresses is crucial, not only for his college recruiting, but because he has two inexperienced quarterbacks to protect.

As the ever-important left tackle, he will be protecting the blind side of sophomore Blake Meyer or junior Jet Volo. Nunez has yet to make a decision on who will start at quarterback and said he could even play both, but Volo is the only one that has varsity experience (he attempted two throws as a backup last season).

“Their inexperience is going to show, but they have the talent to overcome that,” Perzanowski said of his quarterbacks. “Protecting any quarterback is important.”

5 QUESTIONS WITH … TRAINER ALEXA GUTIERREZ, ON HOW SHE TREATS THE PLAYERS

Alexa Gutierrez, 28, is an all-sport athletic trainer at Ocean View High School. Gutierrez’s job is to ensure players are of sound mind, help them bounce back from injures and stay healthy. Starting her fourth year in the athletic department, Gutierrez shares some insight about her position that might go unnoticed behind the scenes and what she does in order to help players get back into the game.

Q: What’s the most exciting part of your job?

A:Game nights. Just getting my players healthy and back on the field for game nights is the most exciting part.

A:I think it’s both. Because if you could prevent an injury that would be awesome. Then the players would never have to see me. But also once we return them back on to the field it’s just overall health, mental health, physical health and make sure they’re ready for their specific sport.

Q: You’re the athletic trainer for all sports at Ocean View. What’s the most exciting for you?

A:I don’t know. I would say football, basketball, wresting are my top three sports, but I like them all.

Q: What the message that you tell players when they are dealing with injuries or trying to come back from an injury?

A:When they are returning from injury I always like to get them mentally prepared. You know, “Do you feel like you are actually ready to get back on the field?” I feel if they aren’t mentally ready and they don’t feel like they’re ready, they’re going to end up back in my room. I feel like those mentally ready will take the initiative and say, “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Q: There’s a lot of talk about concussions in football. What are you doing to promote concussion awareness and let players know about the long term effects?

A:First, I listen to my athletes and see what they are feeling. I’m just following the procedures put in place. If players have a head injury from contact, we take them to the doctor and let the doctor diagnose and figure out what’s wrong with them. We’ve also spoken about secondary impact syndrome, and how the first impact is not so much the deadly one, but the second (impact) one. I try to make them conscious and I have some kids that aren’t really aware of it, so they ask me questions, which I try to answer. But if their symptoms are positive, then we refer them to the doctor.

Q: What are you most excited about for the next season?

A:I just want my kids to stay healthy, that’s the most important thing to me. That’s why I’m here for. Win or lose, it doesn’t matter, I just like to see the kids having fun out there and be proud of what they are doing. That’s the only thing I can ask for.

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